Early Music Videos

The synaesthesia of music and film first blossomed in the early 20s, personified by Oskar Fischinger, who first experimented in Munich and then made beautiful commercials in Hollywood that remain unsurpassed to this day. Yet, these videos were advertising products, just as the music video is defined as doing so today. The music video advertises the underlying music, which determines the sequence and priorities of the production process: it is the music that stimulates the direction and the music that is made more appealing than it may already be, by the addition of images.
Music videos understood as such, have only existed since the second half of the 60s, either as a part of a feature film, such as “A Hard Days Night” by Richard Lester with The Beatles, or as a short film released separately, such as “Strawberry Fields Forever”.
The term “music video” is therefore not actually applicable to these early clips, as video was not involved at all then and was not yet available as a technology on the mainstream consumer market. This also applies to the next generation of early clips, that were produced during the 70s by conceptually advanced bands from the US underground, The Residents and Devo. In their videos and those by bands from other countries, who were also interested in the implementation of other mediums in interplay with their music, working with “Found Footage” played a significant role.
It was also the case in the early 80s that music videos were, more often than not, shot on film. However, video effects were being employed in creatively advanced clips and the music video in general was discovered as a field of experimentation – still before its extensive use as a promotional tool, linked with the birth of MTV – which began to degrade video art in terms of experimental boldness and conceptual innovation. These works were presented at experimental film festivals and video festivals, which were relatively new at that time.
MaerzMusik presents some of these outstanding examples of clips from the dawn of the music video.